The Beitbridge Mayor has lobbied the government to give the border town a share of the road access fees collected from the Beitbridge Border Post to help develop the town.
Speaking on the side-lines of a Matabeleland South Provincial council meeting held in Bulawayo, Wednesday, the Mayor Councillor Morgan Ncube said the town was only allocated ZWL$137 000 for road development projects.
“The government takes the money from road access fees for each vehicle coming in through the border, Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA) is not even helping cause so far they have given us ZW$137 000 and its nothing as it did not help in the development of the Town,” said Mayor Cllr Ncube.
He said the Ministry of transport has to look into the issue so that the locals can also benefit from the border post.
“Whether it’s ZINARA or Ministry of transport has to know that there is too much money coming in through Beitbridge border post but as residents of the town we are not benefiting anything,” said Mayor Cllr Ncube.
Mayor Ncube added that even the devolution funds that were distributed for the town were not sufficient.
“Even when it comes to devolution funds, we only received about ZWL$800 000 and it is very little because we wanted to invest in earth moving equipment so that we can service our roads and our area without hiring people somewhere,” he said.
Plumtree Town Council chairperson Councillor Fanisani Dube said they are also not benefiting from the revenue collected at the Plumtree Border post.
“The border is one of the areas where we have been looking forward to benefiting from and always hoping that one day, we see the revenue being given back to us.
“We look forward that under devolution of power and resources, money collected from the border will start flowing into the town and know how much was raised, and also how much it adds to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the province.
“We would also want to know how much is our portion based on what is collected but currently we do not see anything and we believe all proceeds at the border post go straight to the Central government,” said Cllr Dube.
